George A. Romero is known popularly as the father of the modern movie zombie because of his 1968 classic, "Night of the Living Dead. " But he recently had some less-than-flattering things to say about "The Walking Dead," the zombie TV series that wears its Romero influence on its sleeve. Speaking to the U.K. newspaper the Big Issue, Romero stated that he's chosen to stay far away from the AMC series, which is pushing zombies to the forefront of the pop culture zeitgeist. "They asked me to do a couple of episodes of 'The Walking Dead,' but I didn't want to be a part of it," Romero said.

In Manuel Carballo's pre-apocalyptic zombie drama "The Returned" - set years after an outbreak has been medically contained - getting bitten is no walking-death sentence, as long as you get your timely zombie protein shots. Then you can still be a functioning - if often discriminated against, or outright hated - member of a still-fearful society. So why, then, is returned-advocate doctor Kate (Emily Hampshire) secretly hoarding doses for her loving, infected boyfriend Alex (Kris Holden-Ried)

Rush hour on Hollywood Boulevard. Street toughs in black leather jackets compared new tattoos. A homeless man dozed in a doorway. A short-order cook stepped outside for a cigarette. Nearby, a teen-ager--perhaps an aspiring starlet--eyed publicity stills outside an aging movie palace. "I know they're trying to clean up Hollywood Boulevard," said a big, bearded bear of a man who was eyeing the odd, colorful crowd. "But you'll always be able to get a tattoo here. It'll just cost more."

George A. Romero is known popularly as the father of the modern movie zombie because of his 1968 classic, "Night of the Living Dead. " But he recently had some less-than-flattering things to say about "The Walking Dead," the zombie TV series that wears its Romero influence on its sleeve. Speaking to the U.K. newspaper the Big Issue, Romero stated that he's chosen to stay far away from the AMC series, which is pushing zombies to the forefront of the pop culture zeitgeist. "They asked me to do a couple of episodes of 'The Walking Dead,' but I didn't want to be a part of it," Romero said.

As he sips iced coffee in the restaurant of the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel, filmmaker George Romero -- the father or, at 65, the grandfather of modern horror films -- admits what's scaring him these days: June 24. "It's terrifying to be opening up in summer," says Romero of his latest zombie opus, "Land of the Dead." It hits theaters Friday -- 37 years after the debut of his seminal flesh-eating flick "Night of the Living Dead" and 20 years since his last undead venture, "Day of the Dead."

Splatter king Tom Savini knows a naturally scary face when he sees one. When Savini, the make-up whiz who created the effects for such seminal slasher films as "Friday the 13th" and "Maniac," spied Walter Berry at a local lunch counter this spring, he immediately pegged him as a good corpse and invited Berry to play a zombie in the remake of George Romero's horror cult classic, "Night of the Living Dead."

The zombie movie has few storytelling avenues beyond attack-chomp-slaughter-run, and George Romero has by now explored them all, and memorably. What separates new entry "The Dead," then, is its physical arena: the harsh, withering expanse of northwest Africa. By setting their zombie-pocalypse in a war-torn region of unforgiving climate, punishing earth and decimated villages, British filmmaking brothers Howard J. and Jon Ford — who filmed in Burkina Faso and Ghana — get an initially visceral metaphoric punch not unconnected to the routinely troubling news media images often beamed from this ravaged continent.

In Manuel Carballo's pre-apocalyptic zombie drama "The Returned" - set years after an outbreak has been medically contained - getting bitten is no walking-death sentence, as long as you get your timely zombie protein shots. Then you can still be a functioning - if often discriminated against, or outright hated - member of a still-fearful society. So why, then, is returned-advocate doctor Kate (Emily Hampshire) secretly hoarding doses for her loving, infected boyfriend Alex (Kris Holden-Ried)

"The Offspring" (citywide) is an anthology horror movie in which four typically loathsome and creepy tales--mostly about bloody revenge--are related in a breathless lisp by Vincent Price to a skeptical, shrewish outsider played by Susan Tyrrell. It's definitely no "Dead of Night," and it suffers from the same blood-swilling excesses of most modern horror movies.

"Creepshow 2" (citywide) is a cut-rate sequel from those two popular masters of horror, Stephen King and George Romero, that plays like leftovers. Fans of both deserve better. The film consists of three King tales stitched together by some blah-looking animated sequences featuring an adolescent fan of "Creepshow" comic books who's plagued by a gang of bullies.

The zombie movie has few storytelling avenues beyond attack-chomp-slaughter-run, and George Romero has by now explored them all, and memorably. What separates new entry "The Dead," then, is its physical arena: the harsh, withering expanse of northwest Africa. By setting their zombie-pocalypse in a war-torn region of unforgiving climate, punishing earth and decimated villages, British filmmaking brothers Howard J. and Jon Ford — who filmed in Burkina Faso and Ghana — get an initially visceral metaphoric punch not unconnected to the routinely troubling news media images often beamed from this ravaged continent.

In a nondescript office building on Cahuenga Boulevard, Frank Darabont is putting the finishing touches on the end of the world. The writer-director, famed for such Oscar-nominated feature films as "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile," is now masterminding the zombie apocalypse with his new television series, "The Walking Dead. " Adapted from Robert Kirkman's graphic novels, "Walking Dead" follows a band of survivors struggling to retain their humanity in a nightmarish world overrun by the undead.

Lost: The Complete Collection ABC, $229.99; Blu-ray, $279.99 Fans may argue for decades about whether ABC's "Lost" ended beautifully or with a humongous cop-out, but those arguments alone are a testament to the power of a show that turned one harrowing plane crash on a remote island into six years of globe-hopping, genre-spanning adventure. The entire series is now available in a DVD and Blu-ray package worthy of "Lost" obsessives, complete with a replica board game, hidden clues, a bonus disc of behind-the-scenes footage and all the original season sets' commentaries and featurettes — including the Season 6 set's 15-minute "epilogue.

With "Survival of the Dead," horror auteur George A. Romero, 70, resurrects the series that began more than 40 years ago with the game-changing zombie film "Night of the Living Dead." The Toronto-based writer/director passed through Los Angeles promoting his sixth "… of the Dead" movie, now in theaters. What inspired you to make No. 6? I think of it as four and two. The first four were on their own track. Even though they were made 10 years apart from each other or more, it's meant to be the same storyline.

Who wouldn't want the best for a movie with such a deliciously reactionary name like "The Crazies"? It first belonged to zombiemeister George A. Romero's 1973 indie provocation, centered on a small town's mental and physical disintegration following a mysterious water contamination. It now marks the latest in jacked-up horror remakes ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Halloween," "The Hills Have Eyes") that replace iconoclastic chills with paint-by-numbers shocks. Things start promisingly spooky enough in director Breck Eisner's version, when inhabitants of Iowa farming community Ogden Marsh begin shifting from folksy to frowny, and finally homicidal.

George Romero's "The Crazies" (1973) has always existed in the shadow of his zombie movies, but this epidemic thriller is perhaps the horror maestro's most provocative exploration of his great theme: the collapse of social order. A new remake, directed by Breck Eisner and also titled "The Crazies," opens Friday; the original is being issued on Blu-ray by Blue Underground on Tuesday (it is already available on standard-definition DVD). Back in the crisis-ridden early '70s, the film's queasy premise must have carried more than a ring of real-world plausibility (as it certainly does in our jittery present of viral scares and terror threats)

In a nondescript office building on Cahuenga Boulevard, Frank Darabont is putting the finishing touches on the end of the world. The writer-director, famed for such Oscar-nominated feature films as "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile," is now masterminding the zombie apocalypse with his new television series, "The Walking Dead. " Adapted from Robert Kirkman's graphic novels, "Walking Dead" follows a band of survivors struggling to retain their humanity in a nightmarish world overrun by the undead.

George Romero's "The Crazies" (1973) has always existed in the shadow of his zombie movies, but this epidemic thriller is perhaps the horror maestro's most provocative exploration of his great theme: the collapse of social order. A new remake, directed by Breck Eisner and also titled "The Crazies," opens Friday; the original is being issued on Blu-ray by Blue Underground on Tuesday (it is already available on standard-definition DVD). Back in the crisis-ridden early '70s, the film's queasy premise must have carried more than a ring of real-world plausibility (as it certainly does in our jittery present of viral scares and terror threats)

Zombie movies might not be the first place one thinks to look for social commentary and reflections on the changing landscape of American culture. Yet for four decades, filmmaker George Romero has used a homegrown framework of down-and-dirty horror pictures as something of a personal journal of his times.

As he sips iced coffee in the restaurant of the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel, filmmaker George Romero -- the father or, at 65, the grandfather of modern horror films -- admits what's scaring him these days: June 24. "It's terrifying to be opening up in summer," says Romero of his latest zombie opus, "Land of the Dead." It hits theaters Friday -- 37 years after the debut of his seminal flesh-eating flick "Night of the Living Dead" and 20 years since his last undead venture, "Day of the Dead."